The New Bohemian Innovation Collaborative (NewBoCo) in Cedar Rapids was one of just two accelerators supporting inclusive entrepreneurship in Iowa to receive an award from the Small Business Administration’s 2021 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.
NewBoCo and Rural Business Innovators Iowa SBDC will each receive $50,000 as winners of the GAFC, which recognized efforts that “targeted assistance to STEM/R&D entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups, including women, people of color, rural, and veteran entrepreneurs.”
NewBoCo’s solution centers on empowering the entrepreneurship of eastern Iowa’s nurse and health care workforce first revealed when they stepped up at the start of the pandemic to make PPE and other critical medical supplies. Rural Business Innovators, a program administered by the Iowa SBDC, built an accelerator customized to the needs of innovators in rural Iowa.
The 84 winners of the GAFC across the country are accelerators and incubators who proposed targeted assistance to STEM/R&D entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups, including women, people of color, rural, and veteran entrepreneurs. The GAFC prize winners support a broad range of industries including clean energy, supply chain resilience and infrastructure.
View the full list of awardees here.
